bleen Posted February 22, 2005 Share Posted February 22, 2005 I've been on the prowl for one of these at a reasonable price for more than a year - I won one on eBay last week and it's on the way to me now! Woohoo!!!! Even though I've pared down much of my hardware over the past few years to an arsenal of softsynths and a NordLead 2X, I've always kept an eye out for one of these for it's unique "digital-ness". Full report when it arrives on Friday, but I'm VERY excited. (Cue aeon's entrance...) recording/mix guy don gunn.com myspace.com/dongunnmusic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lvercaut Posted February 22, 2005 Share Posted February 22, 2005 Great! Don't ever sell it ! The very best synth module ever made. I want one too. lvercaut Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ITGITC Posted February 22, 2005 Share Posted February 22, 2005 http://jarre.kulichki.net/instruments/modul/jd990.jpg Tom "Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent." - Victor Hugo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Botch. Posted February 22, 2005 Share Posted February 22, 2005 Congrats! With any luck they've lost the manual. Botch "Eccentric language often is symptomatic of peculiar thinking" - George Will www.puddlestone.net Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synthguy Posted February 22, 2005 Share Posted February 22, 2005 Well, I don't know about the best module ever made, but darn if the JD isn't useful, and powerful. I was amazed when I got mine at how modern and yet vintage it sounded. This thing could have come out this last NAMM, and Roland really should - STRONG HINT, J Rona take note - make a V Card expansion for the V Synth. Rolands aren't the warmest instruments around, but you can coax a lot from any of them, and the JD is capable of some cozy, juicy warmth along with the "digitalness." Be sure to give us an mp3 sample sometime. This keyboard solo has obviously been tampered with! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michiel Posted February 23, 2005 Share Posted February 23, 2005 bleen, congratulations, It has a sound, no other piece of gear has. Be sure to buy the vintage card!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeebus Posted February 23, 2005 Share Posted February 23, 2005 Nice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aeon Posted February 23, 2005 Share Posted February 23, 2005 dang, bleen, am I that much of a known JD-990 lover? yeah, I love mine to this day...I have a JD-990 with 1.05 OS, Vintage ROM expander, and the Strings card in the front slot...a whopping total of 16MB of ROM! Botch.: Roland has downloadable manuals these days! Sir Basil: good call on the dual digital/warmth aspect of the JD-990...for a PCM-based box, the JD can certainly cop a very warm, organic vibe. and bleen, make sure to get the programmer...the JD-800, LOL! JD-990 --> SDX-330 = lush, creamy stringpads it is a never-sell piece for me...it has that "Roland String Sound" I love, many other tones besides, and it has an overall sound not to be had from any JV, XP, XV or Fantom. (splitting hairs perhaps, but hey, whatcha gonna do?) congrats bleen, I hope you enjoy it...it will make a great partner to the Nord...my JD-990 makes a great partner to my Nord Mod in terms of timbral character. (cue clusterchord's entrance...) cheers, aeon Go tell someone you love that you love them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Windreaper Posted February 23, 2005 Share Posted February 23, 2005 Congratulations for acquiring such a fine synth! However, call me crazy, but I sold my Vintage & Strings Ensemble expanded JD-990 last winter. I always ended up using either my JD-800 or JX-10 as they just were so much more fun (editing JD-990 with JD-800 involves some page flipping anyway, so it's not as intuitive as it would appear). JD-990 sure is the more professionally featured box, but I for one hate having a huge mess of cables in my home studio (how the hell can you guys deal with having over half a dozen modules?). Also, having had the luxury of A/B:ing the units, there's no real difference in sound quality between them (JD-990 was perhaps slightly brighter and punchier to my ears). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aeon Posted February 23, 2005 Share Posted February 23, 2005 No question the JD-800 is more immediate and fun to program...those sliders beg to be tweaked! That said, the JD-990 offers some significant architectural differences/advances over the JD-800...besides the ROM expansions there are the structures, the true stereo engine, sync, fx in multi/performance, etc. That is why I kept the JD-990...all the sound of the JD-800 plus a lot more. But I hear ya'...hands-on control is more fun...but so is deeper programming to this nut! cheers, aeon p.s. you could have kept the Strings card for your JD-800! Go tell someone you love that you love them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan South Posted February 23, 2005 Share Posted February 23, 2005 The Vintage Synth card (JVxx04) is a must. The card contains a second (secret) set of patches that work ONLY on a JD-990. The Black Knight always triumphs! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sven Golly Posted February 23, 2005 Share Posted February 23, 2005 Congrats, bleen... colour me envious! Originally posted by aeon: Botch.: Roland has downloadable manuals these days! Alas, not for the JD-990 (yet)... unless Roland's hiding it somewhere other than their Manual Downloads section. Cheers, SG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BP3 Posted February 23, 2005 Share Posted February 23, 2005 Anyone have an easy way of transferring JD-800 sysex into the 990? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MortenJ Posted February 23, 2005 Share Posted February 23, 2005 You can download the manual here http://www.rolandus.com/support/product_manual.asp?Letter=J Morten Access Virus TI keyboard,Alesis ION,Yamaha Motif ES 6,Roland Fantom XR. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MortenJ Posted February 23, 2005 Share Posted February 23, 2005 For Choirs,Pads,Strings and Drums like TR909 will Fantom XR be the best way or will it be JD990 or both. I also like to hear JD990 Morten Access Virus TI keyboard,Alesis ION,Yamaha Motif ES 6,Roland Fantom XR. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Martin Posted February 23, 2005 Share Posted February 23, 2005 Pads, synthy-choirs and synth-strings the JD990 is incredible. Don't know if I've ever used my JD990 for drums.... I'll never get rid of my JD990. -Mike Martin Casio Mike Martin Photography Instagram Facebook The Big Picture Photography Forum on Music Player Network The opinions I post here are my own and do not represent the company I work for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Windreaper Posted February 23, 2005 Share Posted February 23, 2005 Heh, the JD-990 "real" drums are big time 80s. There's plenty of decay and the kick is sort of wet and rubbery. I didn't fool around much with the electronic drumsets but I suppose they were ok for the rom. Speaking of sounds JD-990 isn't famous for, I loved the preset basses. Big Apple Bass (can't remember preset number) was an absolutely wonderful combination of fingered and slap bass (velocity switched). btw aeon: I was lucky enough to own _two_ sets. I figured It'd be too greedy to keep them both - I'm not paranoid enough to have backups for ROM expansions . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Windreaper Posted February 23, 2005 Share Posted February 23, 2005 Originally posted by TinderArts: Anyone have an easy way of transferring JD-800 sysex into the 990? Check Gwydion Elderwyn's resource site. He has written a JD-800 --> JD-990 patch converter (I assume you want to use the bucketload of free JD-800 sounds with your JD-990). He has also converted all his JD-800 soundbanks into JD-990 format to save you the trouble. http://www.gwydi.com/jd990/software.php Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
limpidchaos Posted February 24, 2005 Share Posted February 24, 2005 JD-990 plus Vintage Card Rules !!!!! I JUST love my JD-990~~ yeah, I love mine to this day...I have a JD-990 with 1.05 OS, Vintage ROM expanderHow to identify which OS I have ?? thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aeon Posted February 24, 2005 Share Posted February 24, 2005 Randy: the link in the post right above yours has information on how to tell the JD-990 ROM version, among many other useful things...check it out! and for the JD-990 fans, here is another cool link: http://sonicplug.com/Machines/Roland_JD-990/Pages/ I always wished someone would have been able to "hack" the board expansion port or the wave card port, and provide a means by which you could use user samples, much as you could do with the old SAM-1 for the early-90s Korg synths. Yeah, I know the S-750, S-770, S-760, SP-700, DJ-70mkI/II all had the filters and basic sound engine quality of the JD-800/990, so why not use one of them for user samples? Well, in short, their multi-layer architexture is not as fast and easy as the JD-990 engine is, and their structures are not real-time! cheers, aeon Go tell someone you love that you love them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Svensson Posted February 24, 2005 Share Posted February 24, 2005 According to Roland all JD800 waveforms are supposed to be in the XV-series synths (XV-5050/3080/5080). Has anyone seen any kind of translator of JD patches to XV format? Maybe not exactly like having a JD990 but it should be pretty close (though with a different effects structure). The fun has just begun TM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clusterchord Posted February 27, 2005 Share Posted February 27, 2005 Originally posted by aeon: (cue clusterchord's entrance...) Guilty as charged. it's the richest "not-warm" synth ever. Best digital filters Roland has ever made. Fantastic agressive resonance. Blends great with analogics, also with guitar/drums (works WAY better in mix than Triton or XT, for example). even if being all digital board - it has a unique character. If "ROMpling plus Digital subtractive" was ever an equally important synthesis subgroup - this board was it!! Originally posted by aeon: and bleen, make sure to get the programmer...the JD-800, LOL! Now, that's a positively dirty thought!! always liked the UI on 800, but otoh i missed using the 990's osc sync capabilities with samples (!!)and some insert FX. this sync can create some truly unique killer bass and lead sounds. anyway, if someone here is puzzled by it, but hasn't actually heard this baby yet, here's a few old demos (no expansion): http://www.babic.com/SYN/JD990-Patches.mp3 http://www.babic.com/SYN/JD990-BladeOfGlass.mp3 http://www.babic.com - music for film/theatre, audio-post Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bleen Posted February 27, 2005 Author Share Posted February 27, 2005 Well, the 990 arrived yesterday but I didn't get a chance to open the box and plug it in until today. It's in really good shape and powers up just fine - I still haven't heard it as I had a session and a playing gig today, so hopefully tomorrow... recording/mix guy don gunn.com myspace.com/dongunnmusic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lvercaut Posted February 27, 2005 Share Posted February 27, 2005 bleen, i'm really interested in your opinion as i want to buy one too. Waiting... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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